Only 44% Of Class 5 Students Can Read Class 2 Text. Telangana Turns To AI, Says Report
The report noted that Telangana had introduced AI education from primary grades and established 1,000 AI labs in government high schools
Hyderabad: With only 44 per cent of Class 5 students nationally able to read a Class 2 text, and India facing a doctor-patient ratio of 1:811, Telangana is expanding the use of artificial intelligence in schools and hospitals, according to the ‘AI for All: Catalysing Jobs, Growth and Opportunity’, a White Paper released by Prosus and Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
The report noted that Telangana had introduced AI education from primary grades and established 1,000 AI labs in government high schools. The state’s EkStep adaptive learning platform covers 540 government primary schools and is being expanded to more than 5,000 schools.
Through the CodeMitra programme, government school students are also receiving AI and digital learning support through partnerships with Amazon Future Engineer and Pi Jam Foundation. Another 50,000 students in 500 government schools are being provided AI education through Microsoft’s ADVANTA(I)GE initiative.
In healthcare, the state has rolled out AI diagnostics in district hospitals through an integrated health profiling system that supports e-health profiles and screening for non-communicable diseases, the White Paper said. AI-powered lung cancer screening using chest X-ray technology has also been introduced in 20 public health facilities to improve early detection, particularly in underserved areas.
The White Paper highlighted agriculture as another sector where AI was being deployed. Telangana’s Saagu Baagu programme used Telugu-language WhatsApp advisories, machine learning-based soil testing, quality grading and e-commerce linkages to support more than 7,000 chilli farmers in Khammam.
According to the report, the pilot resulted in a 21 per cent increase in yield per acre, an eight per cent improvement in prices realised, a nine per cent reduction in pesticide use and a five per cent reduction in fertiliser use. Farmers recorded an additional income of around `66,000 per acre per crop cycle.
The programme is now being expanded to five lakh farmers across 10 districts and five crops. Telangana also launched India’s first agriculture data exchange (ADeX) and agriculture data management framework to support AI-enabled agriculture, the White Paper said.
In manufacturing, AI, digital twins and predictive analytics deployed under Telangana’s Manufacturing 5.0 roadmap had been linked to a 43 per cent reduction in manufacturing costs, a 30 per cent reduction in production lead times and a 41 per cent reduction in energy consumption, the report said.
Hyderabad’s AI ecosystem includes more than 350 global capability centres, over 2,000 start-ups supported by T-Hub and a proposed 200-acre AI City as the state seeks to position itself as a global AI hub by 2035.